Theory-Agnostic Constraints on Black-Hole Dipole Radiation with Multi-Band Gravitational-Wave Astrophysics

Abstract

The aLIGO detection of the black-hole binary GW150914 opened a new era for probing extreme gravity. Many gravity theories predict the emission of dipole gravitational radiation by binaries. This is excluded to high accuracy in binary pulsars, but entire classes of theories predict this effect predominantly (or only) in binaries involving black holes. Joint observations of GW150914-like systems by aLIGO and eLISA will improve bounds on dipole emission from black-hole binaries by six orders of magnitude relative to current constraints, provided that eLISA is not dramatically descoped.

6 pages, 1 figure; slight changes to text and figure (which now uses design aLIGO instead of current aLIGO for the combined eLISA-aLIGO costraints), conclusions unchanged. Matches version accepted by PRL